It took a sassy American to force stuffy British lawmakers to come clean over their expenses.
Heather Brooke, a 38-year-old Pennsylvania-born reporter, has become the scourge of parliament, forcing the publication of legislators’ expenses claims following a five-year legal battle that has exposed Britain’s deep-rooted culture of official secrecy.
The expense bills reveal how lawmakers frittered away public money with claims for porn movies, chandeliers and housekeepers or repaired their tennis court, swimming pool or helicopter pad.
The revelations have ravaged the reputation of Britain’s political class even as ordinary citizens worry about ballooning government spending, soaring unemployment and a painful recession.
Even bankers are breathing a sigh of relief, having been pushed off the front pages of newspapers — at least temporarily — by the lawmakers’ outrageous charges.
But the scandal might never have been exposed if Brooke hadn’t targeted parliament after moving from the US in 1997 to study literature. She says she was shocked by British apathy toward abuses of power, and suspicious of a society that seemed to block the public’s right to know at every turn.
“I think there’s a culture of deference here, where the public believe that people who are in power — the great and the good — still know what’s best for everyone,” Brooke said in an interview. “I come from an American tradition, that you should always be skeptical of government and have a right to know what’s been done with your money.”
Brooke was raised in Seattle by parents who had emigrated from the northern England city of Liverpool.
She worked previously as a reporter at the Spartanburg Herald-Journal in South Carolina and the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington — where as an intern she was dispatched to the state legislature to rifle through lawmakers’ expenses. A trawl through box after box of airline tickets and room service bills brought no story, but left Brooke certain about the importance of accountability.
“I couldn’t find anything wrong, they were all totally aboveboard,” Brooke said. “I think now the reason is not that they were better people, but that they knew that their expenses were a public record and anyone could look at them.”
Brooke wrote a book, Your Right To Know, suspecting that the British public needed a lesson in how to use freedom of information laws — legislation being newly introduced to the UK.
In 2004, drawing on her experience in Spokane, Brooke lodged a request for details of British lawmakers’ expenses. Her claim was met with derision by authorities at the House of Commons.
“They pretty much laughed in my face, because it was just so unheard of that a common person would dare to ask for them,” she said.
Undeterred, Brooke made a second attempt in 2005, which was also blocked.
Three years later, when Britain’s information ombudsman ordered that lawmakers’ receipts be released, Speaker of the House Michael Martin tried to block publication of the data by appealing to Britain’s High Court.
Brooke said she and her lawyer were pitted in court against a pack of government officials and lawyers.
“It was outrageous; all that taxpayers’ money was subsidizing a battle to keep information from the taxpayer,” Brooke said.
The court rejected Martin’s appeal in May last year, ordering the release of approximately 2 million receipts submitted by lawmakers.
Authorities planned to release the details in July — but Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper obtained copies last week and disclosed the details that Brooke had fought to expose.
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